26 February 2026
MANDALUYONG, Philippines – Go Digital Philippines (GDP) led the ASEAN AI Workstream Coordination Meeting alongside the ASEAN Business Advisory Council Philippines (ASEAN-BAC) and PSAC Digital Infrastructure (PSAC-DI) with attendees from the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Global AI Council Philippines, and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), with McKinsey & Company (McKinsey) and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) providing strategic advisory support. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will also extend advisory support to the workstream.
Stakeholders aligned on a structured roadmap to advance ASEAN’s AI agenda through three core enablers: Finance and Interoperability, Workforce Transformation, and Governance and Trust.
Participants highlighted McKinsey and BCG’s role in supporting the workstream’s development of national AI strategy, cross-border pilot initiatives, interoperability priorities, and governance frameworks to enable responsible AI adoption at scale.
Discussions also advanced plans for the proposed ASEAN Center for Applied AI and Governance, covering its mandate, structure, planned outputs, and inputs required from government and regional partners.
To strengthen delivery, the workstream reviewed government updates and endorsement pathways led by DICT and DTI, aligned regional coordination under ASEAN-BAC, and outlined the key decisions needed to move forward. These include priority cross-border pilots, the structure of the Leader’s Package, and role assignments with timelines.
GDP reiterated its support for public-private collaboration that strengthens trusted AI governance, expands capability building, and drives practical implementation, with a focus on concrete pilots, clearer milestones, and measurable regional impact.